Franco Ferrero

“A life designed with passion”

Franco Ferrero "This our land "

When we were boys we met at the coffee Victoria at Porto Maurizio in order to play to chess. Year-end 50' beginning' 60, at Imperia the International Festival of Chess takes to start; masters participate coming from every part of the world partecipate: Paoli, Porreca, Baretic, Todorcevic, the great Forintos. In city “chess mania” is diffused quickly between old and young people ; the local Circle is still rather “sketchy”, the seat is improvised in the premises of the coffee Victoria.

We boys of the scientific grammar school made an appointment in the evening for one game , in tacit agreement; often in our group also Franco Ferrero showed himself. Franco was some years older than us, he was a careful and scrupulous player, and for us it was pride reason to be able to defy him on the chessboard. Also I tried to measure my ability with him without particular success; after the canonical movements of opening, I touched the difference; Franco planned Arithmetics and solutions, I defended myself as I could, in the middle of the game I already foresaw the outcome, looking for one escape ways, without solutions. Then, when I moved myself to Milan for the university studies, our meetings became less frequent and usually we met again in summer at the beach “Spiaggia d’oro” or on the jetty of the long wharf. Under the beach umbrella we resumed also some game to chess; while he approximately brought me up to date about his activities. Franco was a versatile planner of life: journalist, writer, deepened historian of West Liguria, organizing and constructor of events. In common we had the love for Cervo ligure; there I lived the years of my infancy, the cycle of elementary with master Filippona and master Ansaldo; Franco became the Director of the local Tourist Office. We commented on the transformation of the village, the aggressions of wharves and little wharves that, year after year, they upset the splendid natural scene of the marine landscape: the Porteghetto, the Marina del Re…	Andagna - The tower against the Saracens (photo by Ferrero)

We boys of the scientific grammar school made an appointment in the evening for one game , in tacit agreement; often in our group also Franco Ferrero showed himself.

Franco was some years older than us, he was a careful and scrupulous player, and for us it was pride reason to be able to defy him on the chessboard. Also I tried to measure my ability with him without particular success; after the canonical movements of opening, I touched the difference; Franco planned Arithmetics and solutions, I defended myself as I could, in the middle of the game I already foresaw the outcome, looking for one escape ways, without solutions.

Then, when I moved myself to Milan for the university studies, our meetings became less frequent and usually we met again in summer at the beach “Spiaggia d’oro” or on the jetty of the long wharf. Under the beach umbrella we resumed also some game to chess; while he approximately brought me up to date about his activities.

Franco was a versatile planner of life: journalist, writer, deepened historian of West Liguria, organizing and constructor of events. In common we had the love for Cervo ligure; there I lived the years of my infancy, the cycle of elementary with master Filippona and master Ansaldo; Franco became the Director of the local Tourist Office. We commented on the transformation of the village, the aggressions of wharves and little wharves that, year after year, they upset the splendid natural scene of the marine landscape: the Porteghetto, the Marina del Re…

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Andagna - The tower against the Saracens

(photo by Ferrero)

Franco Ferrero: "Cervo"	But above all it appeals to me to remember the enthusiasm with which he engaged himself in the great cultural topics of the village; the creation of the Ethnografic Museum of West Liguria in the castle of the Clavesana and the determining contribution in launch and diffusing in the world the Chamber Music Festival. The curious anecdotes that he collected around to more celebrate musicians that trod the boards of the public square of the Church of Corallini: the tic of Pollini, the technical obsessions of Artuto Benedetti Michelangeli, the fortunate coincidence of the arrival of Sandor Vegh who fallen in love with Cervo Ligure and, with a brilliant intuition, organized in 1964 one musical manifestation destined to become one between the more important at international level. We planned also an art exhibition of my father in law, Mario Fabbrini, in the rooms of the Oratory of Saint Caterina at that time under repair. Then the artistic management changed destination and nothing came of the matter. remember also the publishing difficulties that had to face before publishing “This our earth”, a carefully documented travel in the culture and the history of the places of west Liguria. A work of great engagement that saw him to sound all the little Ligurian villages comprised between the French border and Albenga in order to discover and to return to public eye artistic preciousness, ways of historical and tourist interest, archaeological curiosities, deepened bibliographical searches of archives. With meticulous participation he himself attended to the iconography, and all the illustrations that make the volume precious are the fruit of his photographic ability in framing shapes and structures of passionate lyric suggestion.

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Franco Ferrero: "Cervo"

But above all it appeals to me to remember the enthusiasm with which he engaged himself in the great cultural topics of the village; the creation of the Ethnografic Museum of West Liguria in the castle of the Clavesana and the determining contribution in launch and diffusing in the world the Chamber Music Festival. The curious anecdotes that he collected around to more celebrate musicians that trod the boards of the public square of the Church of Corallini: the tic of Pollini, the technical obsessions of Artuto Benedetti Michelangeli, the fortunate coincidence of the arrival of Sandor Vegh who fallen in love with Cervo Ligure and, with a brilliant intuition, organized in 1964 one musical manifestation destined to become one between the more important at international level.

We planned also an art exhibition of my father in law, Mario Fabbrini, in the rooms of the Oratory of Saint Caterina at that time under repair. Then the artistic management changed destination and nothing came of the matter. remember also the publishing difficulties that had to face before publishing “This our earth”, a carefully documented travel in the culture and the history of the places of west Liguria.

A work of great engagement that saw him to sound all the little Ligurian villages comprised between the French border and Albenga in order to discover and to return to public eye artistic preciousness, ways of historical and tourist interest, archaeological curiosities, deepened bibliographical searches of archives. With meticulous participation he himself attended to the iconography, and all the illustrations that make the volume precious are the fruit of his photographic ability in framing shapes and structures of passionate lyric suggestion.

So, when I have learned the news of his death happened at Cuneo in the Hospital of Santa Croce during a night of May, I have immediately thought to these flashes of life; and I couldn’t help remembering a phrase that Franco himself quoted in the preface of “This our earth” according the ancient and popular wisdom of ligurian people: “It takes more courage to living that to die”.

(Pier Luigi Coda)